It may have been a largely party-line vote, but the Senate Judiciary Committee’s easy approval of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor on Tuesday was still a welcome victory for Democrats in need of some good news.

After a two-hour debate, the vote was 13-6, with South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham the lone Republican joining all the committee’s Democrats in support of the nomination. With the GOP vowing not to filibuster the nomination, the Senate is expected to confirm her to the high court as early as next week — one of the few successes of late for the party in power as it struggles with its massive health care agenda.

Graham, who has been criticized by conservatives for his support of Sotomayor, said he regretted the partisan nature of the judicial nomination process.

“This is the first Latina woman in the history of the United States to be selected for the Supreme Court. Now that is a big deal,” Graham said. “I would not have chosen her, but I understand why President [Barack] Obama did. I gladly give her my vote, because I think she meets the qualifications test that was used in [Antonin] Scalia and [Ruth Bader] Ginsburg.”

The committee vote sets the stage for another partisan battle over the next nominee to the Supreme Court, especially if that pick would change the ideological balance of power on the court. Sotomayor would fill the seat vacated by Associate Justice David Souter, who is considered to be one of the court’s more liberal members.

At Tuesday’s committee vote, Republicans said Sotomayor failed in her four days of testimony to answer questions about several speeches that they said suggest judicial bias, including her remark that a “wise Latina” might render a better judgment than a white male. At the hearings this month, Sotomayor expressed regret for her statement and said that her 17-year record as a federal judge proves that she puts fidelity to the law above anything else.

“Based on her record as a judge and her statements, I am not able to support her nomination,” said Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the top Republican on the committee. “In speech after speech, year after year, Judge Sotomayor set forth a fully formed judicial philosophy that conflicts with American philosophy of blind justice to the law.”

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who in his six terms in the Senate has voted for every Supreme Court nominee he has faced, said he examined her entire record “with the more exacting scrutiny appropriate for Supreme Court nominations.”

The GOP also sought to repudiate Obama’s statements that a judge should consider “empathy” in his or her decision making. In her testimony, Sotomayor said she does not empathize with those appearing before her in court.

“This radical empathy standard stands in stark opposition to what most of us understand to be the proper role of the judiciary,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), whose “no” vote against Sotomayor marks the first time he has voted against a Supreme Court nominee in his 29 years in the Senate.

Democrats said the GOP was treating the nominee unfairly. Sotomayor’s record, senators from both sides have agreed, is within the mainstream, and the American Bar Association has said she is well-qualified to serve on the high court.

“It’s interesting to me to hear the comments of those who will not vote for this judge; for me, I look at her very differently — I look at her as a most impressive person on a number of different levels,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). “She has shown a dedication of the law, this has been tested and tested. … I find no example of infidelity to the law.”

“In her 17 years on the bench, there is not one example, let alone a pattern, of her ruling based on bias or prejudice or sympathy,” Leahy said. “She has been true to her oath and faithfully and impartially performed her duties as set forth by the Constitution.”

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) criticized the confirmation process, saying that nominees including Sotomayor have increasingly hidden their views on a host of critical matters by saying they could not take a position on a matter that could come before the court.

“These hearings have become little more than theater,” Feingold said.

In his analysis of Sotomayor, Graham said she is well-qualified and would not upset the ideological balance of the court and that Obama should have the latitude to choose a Supreme Court nominee.

Graham added that he wants to return to the custom of senators deciding whether to vote for a nominee based on his or her qualifications, rather than extraneous political factors.

“I do not want to set a standard here that people who are aspiring to be a judge will never have a thought, never take on an unpopular cause,” Graham said, referring to concerns over Sotomayor’s speeches and her work with a Puerto Rican advocacy group before she became a judge. “It is OK to advocate a position that is different than we would advocate ourselves.”

Sotomayor will pick up a handful of Republican votes on the Senate floor next week, including that of Cuban-American Sen. Mel Martinez.

“As an Hispanic-American, it makes me immensely proud that there will be a Hispanic on the Supreme Court,” Martinez said. “That’s not why I decided to support Judge Sotomayor, but it does make me very proud to know that someone of my heritage will be sitting on the court.”